Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn’t Easy

Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn't Easy (the third Sondheim book to fit "Art Isn't Easy" into the title) has received raves from the New York Times and James Lapine and many other publications and artists. It has been called intricate, elegant, densely pleasurable, accessible and engaging, crisp and refreshing, superb, and, oh yeah, perfect.

My considerably less enthusiastic response to the book feels churlish in comparison. And yet. 

I'll keep it simple and only address what I consider to be the book's greatest weakness: author Daniel Okrent's determination to make Sondheim's songs reflect Okrent's interpretation of Sondheim's psyche, no matter how irrelevant or inaccurate. 

The most vivid example is Okrent's treatment of Sondheim's brilliant "Someone in a Tree" from Pacific Overtures. Okrent writes, 

What was ostensibly a song about Japanese history was also a song about an outsider--and about a young boy trying to connect to something larger than himself.

Well, that's simply not true. The boy isn't trying to connect to something larger than himself He sees himself as a necessary facet of history--in fact, as central to what is occurring. As Sondheim's lyrics explain, 

BOY: 

And there's someone in a tree— 

OLD MAN (that is, the boy many years later): 

—Or the day is incomplete 

BOY AND OLD MAN: 

Without someone in a tree
Nothing happened here 

OLD MAN:
I am hiding in a tree 

BOY:
I'm a fragment of the day 

BOY AND OLD MAN: 
If I weren't, who's to say
Things would happen here the way
That they happened here? 

OLD MAN:
I was there then
It's the pebble, not the stream 

BOY (simultaneously):
It's the fragment, not the day
I am here still 

BOY AND OLD MAN: 
It's the ripple, not the sea
Not the building but the beam
Not the garden but the stone
Not the treaty house
Someone in a tree

Again, not only is the boy not looking for connection with others, but he feels that history is all about him! Rarely has a song announced so exactly what it is about.

Assuming that this is the amazing original
Broadway production of Pacific Overtures,
  which I believe it is, this shows
 Gedde Watanabe as the boy
and James Dybas as the old man
 singing "Someone in a Tree."

One of Okrent's main themes of the book, if not the main theme, is that Sondheim spent his life trying "to connect to something larger than himself" and to be "part of" a family, groups, etc. I don't buy this interpretation for many reasons, one of which is that he bases it on such weak and inaccurate analyses of lyrics.

Okay, while I'm here, I might as well point out another weakness of the book: Okrent's odd and often inaccurate use of editorial adjectives. He calls Anyone Can Whistle's nine performances "flaccid." Sondheim's interest in games and puzzles is a "curious obsession." The clothing that Annie Leibovitz had Sondheim wear for her photo portrait of him is "risible finery." Okrent refers to a speaking tour that Sondheim took with Frank Rich as "unlikely," without explaining why he thought it was so.

In discussing Sondheim's demo version of "Anyone Can Whistle," Okrent describes Sondhem's voice as "almost imperceptibly cracking" on a particular word, which he reads as revealing Sondheim's poignant view of himself at thirty-three. However, Sondheim's voice is unsteady at best and cracks all over the place. In this case, I'd say the cracking was full-out "imperceptible," not "almost imperceptible." And trying to define Sondheim's personality and emotions from an "almost imperceptible cracking" is really pushing it.

And I guess I will address one more complaint: Okrent shares incredibly intimate moments in Sondheim's life that did not need to be shared. I know it is a biographer's job to invade a subject's privacy, but a little discretion wouldn't hurt.

Luckily, there are about a million books about Sondheim, and no doubt there will be a million more. This one is not in the top one-hundred-thousand.

Wendy Caster

Hadestown The Musical (pro-shot movie release)

What sheer joy! The people who put together the pro-shot of Hadestown got pretty much everything right. They captured the full experience of Hadestown, of course with the usual video vs live differences. 

Video Pros

• It exists!
• Fabulous close-ups
• Vibrant sense of immediacy

Video Cons

• You're not there
• You don't get to choose what to look at
  
• Many videos use thousands of edits and don't allow the audience to settle in to watch. Ultimately, this approach disrespects the show and the performers, because it interrupts everything. The audience doesn't want arty editing. We want clarity.

Hadestown maximizes the pros and minimizes the cons. The editing is smart and not frenetic. Perhaps because director Brett Sullivan worked with the original theatre director Rachel Chavkin, the pro-shot is always in the service of the show. Hadestown is not only respected--it is loved. This is the best performance capture I've ever seen. (And it wasn't too loud!)

I'm thrilled that this pro-shot includes five original performers from the American premiere, but I'm sad that it was shot in London. Whatever problems with rights and unions and other obstacles to recording shows on Broadway, everyone involved has to get over it! On BroadwayHD, there are a ton of American musicals, but mostly with English casts, video-ed on the West End. It's as though they have more respect for our work than we do. It's fabulous that the Library of the Performing Arts has a huge library of recorded shows, but not everyone lives in New York.

At the showing I attended, the audience was fabulous. Engaged, responsive, happy to be there. No cell phones, no noise except the chomping of popcorn. One person applauded after every number, and we all applauded at the end.

Hadestown has been extended. Do see it if you can. And stay through the credits. There's some fun stuff at the end.

Wendy Caster

Fallen Angels (Streaming)

I saw Fallen Angels on Broadway and then watched it on BroadwayHD, which I joined just to see it. (I wonder how many new subscribers they got due to Fallen Angels.)

Fallen Angels is silly as can be, and extremely entertaining. It offers two fabulous roles for women and leaves room for them to unleash their own silliness. Kelli O'Hara and Rose Byrne are terrific, amazing, incredibly funny.

The point of this post is to discuss how the streaming version compares to the live. Director Scott Ellis provides a smooth, clear, record of the show that captures a great deal of what was on stage. I was afraid that the streaming version would come across as horribly overacted, but it came across as just the right amount overacted!

While the close-ups are lovely, I missed the ability to choose where to look. I sometimes focus more on a person listening than a person speaking, to see how the character is responding. An actor who is a good listener can add so much to a show. I often didn't have that option with the streaming version, as the listener was not always in the shot. 

All in all, Ellis et al. did a terrific job, and it's always wonderful to have a record of that most ephemeral of arts, theater. I feel that someone who only saw the streaming version had a full experience of the play. Many times, on seeing taped versions of live performances, I would think, "You had to be there." But not with this Fallen Angel. It truly allowed watchers to be there.

But where did it go? BroadwayHD only showed it for a few weeks. I hope it isn't gone forever. I know that there can be complications with unions and rights in the US (which is why, I suspect, BroadwayHD has so many West End versions of American shows). Here's hoping the show has a long life somewhere!

Wendy Caster

Fear & Wonder

The romance at the center of the Flux Theatre Ensemble's new show Fear & Wonder juggles coming-of-age issues, religion,  homophobia, hypocrisy, and deep, deep love in a story that is thought-provoking, heart-breaking, and lovely. 

Jabez, an Asian-American teen from Washington, DC, and Ryan, an African-American teen from Tampa, FL, are assigned to be roommates at a National Christian Youth Leaders Conference. Jabez comments, "They stick the one Asian and one Black guy in the same room." Jabez is full of questions about religion; Ryan is a true believer. They spar, they bristle, they end up friends and maybe more. Jabez and Ryan manage to maintain something of a friendship for years, mostly through Saturday afternoon phone calls when Ryan's parents aren't home. 

There aren't surprises here, but it doesn't matter. These characters, these interactions, these developments are so well-written, well-acted, and specific that the story is new, fresh, and deeply involving. 

In addition to being a romance/coming-of-age story, Fear & Wonder is a play of ideas. As Jabez and Ryan grow closer, they continue to debate their disagreements about religion. They both have much to say, and the discussion are engaging. 

Fear & Wonder's writing, by Jason Tseng, and direction, by Emily Hartford, are smooth, earnest, and heartfelt. But their biggest contribution may well have been casting Brian Tong as Jabez and Neil Tyrone Pritchard as Ryan. Both men are intense, smart, subtle, and physically adept. Most importantly, they have real chemistry together, and both are able to hide their feelings from themselves but not the audience. Brian Tong is Jabez down to the way he expresses his joy physically. Neil Tyrone Pritchard is so fully present as Ryan that when he sweats, he wipes it away in character. Pritchard turns a handkerchief into an expressive prop. 

Here's where I'd usually write my positive summation paragraph, but I did have one problem, one major problem, with the show. Fear & Wonder is enveloped, intertwined, and interrupted by an ongoing religious service that is too long and too religious, and adds too little to the show. Although the lobby of Fear & Wonder focuses on spirituality as an open idea for everybody/anybody, the service is clearly focused on Jesus. The audience is more than invited to join the service; Tonia E. Anderson, who plays the minister (quite effectively), sents up call-and-response moments right out of a church service.

As an ethnic-Jewish atheist I felt unpleasantly preached at. When the minister said, "God is good," she expected people to respond, "All of the time." I simply didn't respond, which was fine, but I was annoyed because I had come to see a show, not to go to church. (And, if there is a God, I find it impossible to believe that God is good all of the time. And certainly not both good and all-powerful. I mean, take a look around.)

(My favorite depiction of God comes from, if I remember correctly, a story by Elie Weisel. A human gets the opportunity to speak to God and talks about how awful the world is, how terrible people are, how bad the human feels. God answers, "If you're so disappointed, how do you think I feel?")

I do understand how the service meshed with the teens' story, but it could have done so in a fifth of the time. Also, the teens' story was presented in a broken chronology that was sometimes difficult to follow. I believe that the same show, but with considerably less preaching and with clear chronology, would be much more effective than it is now--at least to non-Christians. 

Though, yes, the show is quite good now.

(Two quick points: (1) Will Lowry's smart, practical set is a pleasure to look at. (2) I have always found gay art presenting Jesus as a sex object to be odd. Fear & Wonder clarified how that might happen, with great humor.)

Wendy Caster 

How'd We Do? Results of Our Tony Predictions

This year we acquitted ourselves quite nicely.

Liz: 17

Sandra: 18

Wendy: 22

	Wendy	Liz	Sandra
Best Play: Liberation, Bess Wohl	√	√	Giant
Best Musical: Schmigadoon!	√	√	√
Best Revival of a Play: Death of a Salesman	√	√	√
Best Revival of a Musical: Ragtime	√	Cats	√
Best Direction of a Play: Death of a Salesman	√	√	√
Best Direction of a Musical: Cats	√	√	Ragtime
Best Leading Actress in a Play: Lesley Manville	√	√	√
Best Leading Actor in a Play: John Lithgow	√	Nathan Lane	√
Best Leading Actress in a Musical: Cassie Levy	√	√	√
Best Leading Actor in a Musical: Joshua Henry	√	√	√
Best Featured Actress in a Play: Laurie Metcalf	√	Mary-louise Burke	June Squibb
Best Featured Actor in a Play: Alden Ehrenreich	√	Brandon J. Dirden	Brandon J. Dirden
Best Featured Actress in a Musical: Shoshana Bean	√	Ana Gasteyer	√
Best Featured Actor in a Musical: Ali Louis Bourzgui	Ben Levi Ross	Ben Levi Ross	André De Shields
Best Book Musical: Schmigadoon!	Two Strangers	√	Titaníque
Best Original Score: Schmigadoon!	√	√	√
Best Scenic Design Play: Death of a Salesman	√	Bug	√
Best Scenic Design Musical: The Lost Boys	√	√	√
Best Costume Design Play: Fallen Angels	√	√	√
Best Costume Design Musical: Cats	√	√	√
Best Lighting Design Play: Death of a Salesman	√	Joe Turner’s Come and Gone	√
Best Lighting Design Musical: The Lost Boys	√	√	√
Best Sound Design Play: Death of a Salesman	√	Bug	√
Best Sound Design Musical: Ragtime	Cats	√	Cats
Best Choreography: Cats	√	√	√
Best Orchestrations: Schmigadoon!	Cats	√	Cats
TOTAL CORRECT	22	17	18

  

Three Revivals

Becky Shaw: I found Becky Shaw's first production unconvincing. Playwright Gina Gionfriddo treated her characters as components of her ideas rather than three-dimensional humans. She gave the title character random traits that popped up just in time to fit Gionfriddo's thesis and maybe to teach another character a lesson. I didn't buy any of it. Much of the show was quite funny, however.

I saw this new production because I was intrigued by some of the reviews, and I have been known to change my mind. (It didn't hurt that a friend was nice enough to take me.) This wasn't one of the times I changed my mind. In fact, I was even less convinced that the characters represented real humans. Much of the show was still quite funny, however.

The Receptionist: The press material for this show said, "The Receptionist is a jet-black comedy about bureaucracy and complicity that’s biting in its humor and chilling in its relevance." I found it neither biting nor chilling. It might have been more effective in 2007, but we've had a whole 'nother 19 years to experience the overlap between normal and horrible, and this show tells us nothing new. I suspect it might have already been a tad stale in 2007. 

Fallen Angels: Noel Coward's early play Fallen Angels has no interest in anything real or deep or meaningful. The characters aren't deep or multidimensional, nor do they need to be. It's 90 minutes of silliness, some of it hysterically funny. And what comedy of manners wouldn't be at its very best when starring Kelli O'Hara and Rose Byrne? If sometimes the show seems like an extended episode of Absolutely Fabulous, at least it's a first-class episode. The production is physically attractive and smoothly directed. Some characters are miscast, but it doesn't matter. None of its faults matter. What matters is O'Hara and Byrne and they deliver.

Wendy Caster